Re: Caste Languages
| From: | John Cowan <jcowan@...> |
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| Date: | Monday, December 2, 2002, 7:02 |
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Roger Mills scripsit:
> > The plain/fancy/convoluted levels affect
> > almost every open-class lexical item in the language, whereas the honorifics
> >have more sporadic effects. If I can dig up my materials on this, I will
> >post a sample sentence in all six levels.
>
> Please do!!
Okay, here it is.
1, 2, 3 are the levels I called plain (ngoko), fancy, convoluted.
L means "with low honorifics", H means "with high honorifics".
3H menapa pandjenengan bad,e d,ahar sekul kalijan kaspé samenika
3 menapa sampéjan bad,e ned,a sekul kalijan kaspé samenika
2 napa sampéjan adjeng ned,a sekul lan kaspé saniki
1H apa pandjenengan arep d,ahar sega lan kaspé saiki
1L apa sampéjan arep ned,a sega lan kaspé saiki
1 apa kowé arep mangan sega lan kaspé saiki
[Q] you going to:eat rice and cassava now
Commentary from Burling, _Man's Many Voices_:
The words that translate [Q], "going", and "now" in this example
are triads, and the choice among these indicates the basic level on which
one wishes to speak. To translate "rice", one has only two alternatives,
but this can be looked upon as an incomplete triad, in which the
same form happens to be used on both the second and third levels.
"And", on the other hand, is translated by the same form on the first
and second levels, but has a special elegant form on the highest level.
Honorifics can be used to translate the words for "you" and for "eat".
The level 1 word for "you" is "kowé", but by using the low honorific
"sampéjan", one can boost a basically level 1 discourse to a slightly
more elevated style. It happens that "sampéjan" is also the basic
form for levels 2 and 3, but when used without other level 2 or 3
words, it functions as an honorific. There is also a high honorific
form for "you" -- "pandjenengan" -- and this can be used on either level 1
or level 3. The alternatives for "eat" are the same as those for "you".
Only one word in this sentence -- "kaspé", "cassava" -- is unchanged throughout.
[I'll post the more detailed sociolinguistic info later.]
--
John Cowan jcowan@reutershealth.com www.ccil.org/~cowan www.reutershealth.com
"If he has seen farther than others,
it is because he is standing on a stack of dwarves."
--Mike Champion, describing Tim Berners-Lee (adapted)